Mitochondria in animals are associated with development, as well as physiological and pathological behaviors. Several conserved mitochondrial genes exist between plants and higher eukaryotes. Yet, comparative mitochondrial function among plant and animal species is poorly understood. Here, we show that FMT (FRIENDLY MITOCHONDRIA) from Arabidopsis thaliana, a highly conserved homolog of the mammalian CLU (CLUSTERED MITOCHONDRIA) gene family encoding mitochondrial proteins associated with developmental alterations and adult physiological and pathological behaviors, affects whole plant morphology and development under salt stress and control conditions. FMT was found to regulate mitochondrial morphology and dynamics as well as germination, root length, and flowering time. Here, we show that it also affects leaf expansion growth, salt stress-responses and hyponasty. Strikingly, FMT impacted the speed of hyponasty with corresponding change in speed of locomotion of CLU heterozygous knockout mice. These observations indicate that homologous genes affect homologous functions in plants and animals offering the possibility to develop plant models for the study of mammalian behaviors.

中文翻译：

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哺乳动物CLU同源FMT控制拟南芥的发育和行为

动物的线粒体与发育以及生理和病理行为有关。植物与高等真核生物之间存在着几个保守的线粒体基因。然而，人们对植物和动物中线粒体功能的比较了解甚少。在这里，我们显示了来自拟南芥的FMT（友好的线粒体），它是编码线粒体蛋白质的CLU（簇状线粒体）基因家族的高度保守的同源基因，线粒体蛋白质与发育变化以及成年的生理和病理行为有关，会影响盐下的整个植物形态和发育压力和控制条件。FMT被发现可以调节线粒体的形态和动力学以及发芽，根长和开花时间。在这里，我们表明它也影响叶片膨胀的生长，盐胁迫反应和下位。令人惊讶的是，FMT影响了下位速度，并相应改变了CLU杂合敲除小鼠的运动速度。这些发现表明同源基因影响动植物的同源功能，为研究哺乳动物行为的植物模型提供了可能性。